Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2001), 74, 543–558 Printed in Great Britain Ó 2001 The British Psychological Society Young workers’ work values, attitudes, and behaviours Catherine Loughlin* and Julian Barling University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada and Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada Young workers represent the workforce of the future. We discuss research on two major inuences on young people’s work-related values, attitudes, and behaviours, namely family inuences and work experiences. Particular emphasis is given to the role of young people’s work experiences in shaping their future work-related attitudes, values, and behaviours (an under-researched area in occupational/ organizational psychology). To begin outlining a research agenda based on young workers, changes in the world of work and emerging areas of importance for the future generation of workers and their organizations are also highlighted (i.e. the rise in non-standard employment, leadership, workplace health and safety and unions). This article considers today’s young workers, who represent the workforce of the future. What will shape their work values, attitudes, and behaviours? How will they be similar to, or diV erent from, individuals currently in the workforce? How will changes in the workplace inuence these young workers? While predicting the future behaviour of a generation of workers is not a straightforward task, this task is aided by the fact that many of these future workers are already in the workforce, where their attitudes and behaviours can be studied. In Europe and North America, youth employment has become the norm. For example, in Austria, 67% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are employed, and between the ages of 16 and 24, 75% of young people in Denmark and 63% of those in Sweden are employed (United Nations, 1996). Further, because many young people in the UK have completed formal schooling by the age of 16 (Green & Montgomery, 1988), it is not surprising that a large portion of them are involved in the paid labour force. In North America, almost 80% of high-school students work part-time for pay before they graduate from high school (Barling & Kelloway, 1999), and by 12th grade, 70% of students are employed more than 20 hours a week during the summer (Runyan & Zakocs, 2000). This growth in supply has been paralleled by a growth in demand for young workers because of the increased opportunities in the service sector of the economy and the need for more disposable income to support the higher cost of typical teenage purchases (Barling & Kelloway, 1999). Parents *Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr Catherine Loughlin, Management, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada (e-mail: loughlin@mgmt.utoronto.ca). 543